Hi All - I’m hoping to get some thoughts and guidance on my situation. My uncle has a very large garage filled with antique cars (all carbureted) and it stinks very badly of gasoline fumes. We also use this space to watch football. It gives me a headache, my clothes need to be washed and I have to shower afterwards. It’s really bad. We live in south Florida so in the winter we can just open all the doors but in the summer/fall, the air conditioning is on. Anyway, I’m considering a CR box (or two) to remove VOCs.
Based on my research, the amount of activated carbon in 20" filters would likely not make any difference in this size of space (1,750 sq ft / 163 sq m) before losing effectiveness. For that I’m planning on just using regular filters to remove particulate and bulk activated carbon in mesh bags in/on/around the box.
Questions:
Is this a valid approach or should I be looking for a much more expensive commercial solution?
Do you recommend pellets or granulated carbon?
Is there a VOC meter recommended for this situation? I recognize consumer grade meters have shortcomings. I’m just looking to see if I could get a some indication that it’s time to change the filters/carbon other than using my nose.
Unfortunately, I am unsure if there is any consumer-level device that would be capable of clearing such a large space with (seemingly) a high or very high VOC concentration. It might be possible to try and reduce the VOCs that reach you (by placing the filters near the area you sit, as opposed to trying to clear the VOCs in the entire garage), but I believe that even this would be quite limited in effectiveness. I agree that during summer/fall - or any day on which you can ventilate - opening the doors is the best approach.
To answer your questions:
It’s hard to tell for sure, but I think you’d only see very limited effectiveness especially as the VOCs are constantly being emitted. I would suggest a more commercial solution if it’s feasible.
Granulated would likely be best due to the larger surface area. That said, actually adhering granulated carbon to a filter might be difficult unless the intake/exhaust is on the top of the device and you can place the granules then - but then that would likely significantly impact airflow.
It sounds like you’ve already read some information on this so that’s great! Since you understand the limitations, I would suggest really any air quality monitor with something like an SGP4x or Bosch VOC sensor in it (Qingping, PurpleAir, AirGradient, etc all use these sensors). Just keep in mind the relative nature of these readings!
I agree it may not be the ultimate solution, but I’ve decided to attempt. Commercial solutions >10x the cost so if this experiment is unsuccessful, we’ll have to consider.
In addition to CR boxes, there are other fans in the garage I can place mesh bags of carbon in the airstream as well as the return of the AC unit. I will need to consider the impact to flow and for that reason, I’ve decided to go with pellets since their shape is less likely to compact and restrict versus granular.
